The author was British ambassador to Brazil for many years and has been a member of the famed Royal Geographic Society, sponsor of many an exploration in the Amazon and elsewhere around the world.

This book is aimed at describing the more famous British explorers in the Amazon and uncovering some of the lesser known ones.

Explorers whose exploits are mentioned, with varying degrees of detail, include Raleigh (first to go up the Orinoco), Roe (who established a British trading post in the Amazon in the 1600s, Wallace, Bates (great anturalists), Spruce, Wickham (naturalists and takers of riches, cichona the first and rubber the second), Casement (important human rights figure who ended up hung for treason), and many other lesser known characters, such as Waughn, Fleming, and Lizzie (the first woman explorer to write her story).

The book is short (roughly 250 pages) and provides the reader a good glimpse of British involvement in the Amazon over the last 4 centuries. It is focused mainly on British characters, so some important outsiders are left out, such as Humboldt and La Condamine, but overall it is a good intro to the subject.